Dodgy trade pictures for your amusement! - 1 Million Views!

[Darkwood]

Right ... Just been nudged to set this up by Paul.M and sounds a good idea following recent threads I've done in the Arms..

Rules....No Offensive material... edit if required before posting as this is the public arena.
Anything to do with the trade or in and around it ...H&S pic's welcome.



I've posted this a few times and this is at a mates house following a kitchen refirb several yrs ago. mg_smile:

 

[nicebutdim]

New way to connect a FCU. Done by - or at least under "supervision" of - a spark who was using NIC branded forms. Supplies this hand dryer.

Fancy junction box.

 

[Simon47]

Newly added data points.

I've seen worse, much much worse !
Went to test the cabling left behind by one tenant when they vacated an office, only found 2 pairs connected but on some it was 12&45, others it was 36&78 (or something like that), but also with pairs swapped so 36&78 might appear on 12&45 on the other end. Plus a few where there was nothing connected according to the tester.
Story was that the previous tenant (also a client of ours) had several offices, when they left, they had their electrician separate the networks so each was separate. No offence intended, but like previous criticism of plumbers and alarm installers, "a few" electricians really shouldn't be let loose with network cabling - especially if they aren't prepared to invest in at least the most basic of test equipment.

So, anyone like to guess what was wrong ?

 

[oscar21]

I've seen worse, much much worse !
Went to test the cabling left behind by one tenant when they vacated an office, only found 2 pairs connected but on some it was 12&45, others it was 36&78 (or something like that), but also with pairs swapped so 36&78 might appear on 12&45 on the other end. Plus a few where there was nothing connected according to the tester.
Story was that the previous tenant (also a client of ours) had several offices, when they left, they had their electrician separate the networks so each was separate. No offence intended, but like previous criticism of plumbers and alarm installers, "a few" electricians really shouldn't be let loose with network cabling - especially if they aren't prepared to invest in at least the most basic of test equipment.

So, anyone like to guess what was wrong ?

One worked to the A standard and the other the B standard.

 

[oscar21]

New way to connect a FCU. Done by - or at least under "supervision" of - a spark who was using NIC branded forms. Supplies this hand dryer.

Where's the output from the spur, or is it bunched in with the T&E's

 

[GroovyG]

Where's the output from the spur, or is it bunched in with the T&E's

Indeed, it's in with the T&Es. As suggested above, "fancy junction box". Cautionary tale: always do the safe isolation thing and test everything.

 

[DPG]

Where's the output from the spur, or is it bunched in with the T&E's

I think they've wired it in with the feeds, hence nicebutdim's comment.

 

[Simon47]

One worked to the A standard and the other the B standard.

More fun than that - mixing A and B would swap pairs butvstill leave 4 pairs connected. In this case, only 2 pairs were connected between any patch panel socket and wall socket.
Thise who've worked with network cabling for a while will know that the panels have different terminal layouts. This may or may not work ...
Some have the terminals like this :
45 12 36 78
Bl Or Gr Br
01
02
Bl Or Gr Br
45 12 36 78
i.e. all the terminals for port 1 are in a line on the top, with those for port 2 in a line at the bottom.
Some have tbe terminals like :
45 12 45 12
Bl Or Bl Or
1 2
Gr Br Gr Br
36 78 36 78

Needless to say, the clueless idiot didn't bother looking at the markings and used the wrong layout. So socket 1 had 2 pairs from port 1 and 2 pairs from port 2. Then socket 2 had the other 2 pairs from ports 1&2 ! And so it went, with the added bonus that none of the cables were numbered and he'd mixed a few of those up as well.
Basically had to pull all the cables off the panel, work out which was which (give the tone set an outing), and reterminate them.

On another occasion, the tenant took their cabinet and were supposed to leave the cabling. Something got lost in translation, as their lecky just chopped the bundle of cables - fortunately, leaving just enough length to re-use them (again, tone set job to work out which was which).

 

[Other_Tucker]

One worked to the A standard and the other the B standard.

American and British, it doesn't stand for those specifically but it's a good rule of thumb. Everyone use B for British across the board in the UK so there's never any major ---- ups.

 

[brianmoooore]

American and British, it doesn't stand for those specifically but it's a good rule of thumb. Everyone use B for British across the board.

I'll remember that - didn't realise it was that simple.
Bought my first RJ45 crimper back in the summer to make up half a dozen cables. All worked first time, except one 40m cable, so I invested in a cheap cable tester recommended in a thread on here. Soon found the problem using that. Master was sequencing 1,2,3...8, while the slave was sequencing 8,7,6...1 - I'd crimped one of the plugs on upside down. Could make out which is was through the translucent plastic of the plug, so five minutes later and one scrap plug, all was good.

 

[mainline]

I'll remember that - didn't realise it was that simple.
Bought my first RJ45 crimper back in the summer to make up half a dozen cables. All worked first time, except one 40m cable, so I invested in a cheap cable tester recommended in a thread on here. Soon found the problem using that. Master was sequencing 1,2,3...8, while the slave was sequencing 8,7,6...1 - I'd crimped one of the plugs on upside down. Could make out which is was through the translucent plastic of the plug, so five minutes later and one scrap plug, all was good.

I find this to be a decent tester for the price.

NF 488 Network Cable Tester / Poe Checker | eBay

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Also using through hole wiring plugs makes life easier

 

[brianmoooore]

Also using through hole wiring plugs makes life easier

Is that where you trim the cores to length after the plug is fitted?

 

[DPG]

Is that where you trim the cores to length after the plug is fitted?

Yes. Much easier.

 

[Simon47]

... I'd crimped one of the plugs on upside down. Could make out which is was through the translucent plastic of the plug, so five minutes later and one scrap plug, all was good.

You've reminded me of an "incident" from a good few years ago. My employer at the time managed a campus WAN for a science park - each office/unit was pre-wired with a couple of network points, and one was cabled back to a switch port. We could remotely provision internet access just by configuring the port and allocating them an IP address or range.
Unfortunately, wherever you put these sockets, it's going to be in the wrong place for someone - and sure enough, a business moved in but needed the internet connection to their server room the other side of the unit. So one 40m cable and a few lifted floor tiles later, internet provided where it was needed. Only it "didn't work".
We ended up on a 4 way call - me, the people who at the time managed the network for us, the customer's IT guy, and their external IT support. It turned out, the guy "knew" he needed a crossover cable so cut the plug off and fitted a new one wired as a crossover. - neither our switch, nor his firewall had auto MDI (most devices will automatically switch modes as needed these days so crossover cables are rarely needed, this was some time ago).
The customer's IT guy talked him through finding another crossover cable and an inline coupler. The customer said he'd found one and "it's yellow, is that OK ?" His IT guy responded as I'd have loved to ... "I don't f***in care what colour it is as long as it's crossover".
Needless to say, with the extra crossover in line, our "it's not working" service sprang into life. I managed to refrain from "I told you so" (or something to that effect).

 

[Mikegh]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1511654834893643786

 

[Mikegh]

Big short-circuit current there ?

 

[mainline]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1511654834893643786

Strange that it didn't seem to trip either.

 

[Mikegh]

I was thinking there was 2 bangs looks like only 1

 

[ipf]

Those cutters seemed bit dull, a tough cut and good weld.......leaving them dangling.

 

[oscar21]

As I've mentioned previously we do a bit of work for insurance companies that put right council/housing association properties after fires/floods etc. (this one was a fire caused by a weed grow). What we usually find in a lot of council properties in our area is the kitchen (if its still there) has been upgraded recently with a new ring and cooker circuit and RCBO's installed in place of the non protected circuits but usually the original consumer unit remains, usually very badly done. this was todays example doing an EICR.

Only a little thing but it took me about two hours to rectify, all because they tried to cram a cooker switch into a 25mm box, couldn't get it back so trimmed the cables down as short as possible. Stuff like this wouldn't normally bother me but we get major grief of the council bods for the slightest thing we do wrong (it might be we put 0.4s in the disconnection box on the cert instead of 5s or fit a 230V 9V backup heat alarm instead of a lithium one) yet the actual dangerous stuff they are totally oblivious to and I come across it time after time.

 

[pc1966]

Was reading a thread about repairing imperial MICC and remembered this abomination near me where someone has replaced a Coughtrie light with something of a different size:

 

[nicebutdim]

Was reading a thread about repairing imperial MICC and remembered this abomination near me where someone has replaced a Coughtrie light with something of a different size:
View attachment 111124

They had to feel good standing back and looking at that upon completion.

 

[lozarus]

Yes. Much easier.

Need to be careful with these. I chased down an issue at work recently where these had been used but a few hadn't been cut perfectly flush. Results in them not sitting square and breaks contact.

Also in damp environments they can occasionally get a bit fusty at the bare ends and again make poor contact.

In defence of the LV folk, i started in this trade - and there is an art to it - just like with mains. A caring LV installer will confirm that with enough practice and the right technique its possible to make a sound and easy crimp, first time with traditional RJ45s.

 

[Simon47]

... there is an art to it - just like with mains. A caring LV installer will confirm that with enough practice and the right technique its possible to make a sound and easy crimp, first time with traditional RJ45s.

Indeed. By the time you've done a few hundred, or thousand, it gets easy. At a previous job, we used to get work experience kids from school - I'd show them how it's done, let them do their own (with assistance), and then they could take home their very own patch cable that they'd made. It went down well.
Plus it was easier than explaining all the other stuff I did - without giving away too many secrets.

 

[miamia]

Was reading a thread about repairing imperial MICC and remembered this abomination near me where someone has replaced a Coughtrie light with something of a different size:
View attachment 111124

Really?

 

[timhoward]

Still live, discovered by a friend who will be rebuilding the shower area: